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Learning LISP

Started by sooner123 Sep 5, 2011 at 6:04 AM 4 replies 2.4k views
Original Post
sooner123
sooner123
Having recently been turned onto the idea of learning and using LISP, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to a good starting book.

I'd like it to go far enough that it teaches advanced uses of the language.

A couple I came across online were "practical common lisp" and "land of lisp"

Anyone out there care to recommend a good book for me?
Gamer Gamester
Gamer Gamester
The LIttle LISPer is a very fun introduction to the language (though for the newer 4th edition they switched from LISP to the similar Scheme). I'm not sure if you'd consider it to cover advanced LISP uses,, but the book is absolutely great for getting you to "think recursively". I highly recommend it!
yoshinosan
yoshinosan
I would like to suggest Paul Graham's book "ANSI Common Lisp" for beginners.
The author also wrote On Lisp.It's a good book for sure,but the book is for advanced Lispers.I don't recommend it for beginners.
I've read Land of Lisp and Practical Common Lisp, but I think both books would be difficult for beginners.

Also I recommend ELM-ART, an online tutorial.It's a great learning material.
http://art2.ph-freiburg.de/Lisp-Course
Tac-Tics
Tac-Tics
Paul Graham is a nut. He did well in the .com bubble and he let it really go to his head. His books might be worthwhile, but he's a fanatic elitist and you should take everything he says with salt.

The Little Schemer is an interesting book, but the format gets very irritating after a while. I read it after the whole concept of lisp "clicked", so maybe it's better when the ending is a surprise.

The absolute best book on LISP is "SICP" (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs). It was the old MIT textbook for programming 101. It uses a minimal Scheme dialect. The last two chapters are devoted to the interpreter (they call it the "metacircular evaluator") and a full-fledged LISP compiler that compiles LISP to an assembly language DSL which is also written in LISP. You can find cheap library resell copies on eBay.

The SICP lectures are also online: http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-lectures/

Just a few tips overall about Lisp. Common lisp is the world's second oldest language. Even though it is a "functional" language, the standard CL libraries do very weird shit. The CL community (especially #lisp on freenode.net) are kinda assholish.

Scheme is an academic language. It's small and easy to learn, but it has crappy library support.

Clojure is a modern lisp. If you want to do anything with Lisp seriously, I would suggest you start there: http://clojure.org/
Serapth
Serapth
I don't really have anything specifically to add to this thread other than, good on you.

I wish I did what you are doing much earlier in my programming career, as now my brain is so warped to a procedural bent that I seem to be incapable of learning LISP. I really wish I learned a functional language earlier on in my career, I really think it would have made me a better programmer. At the very least, it would make the task of learning LISP late in life a hell of a lot easier.

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